The field of radar dates back to the mid-20th century. In its early days, it was used to detect the direction and number of incoming aircraft. Nowadays, its uses are varied and myriad. However, one potential drawback of all radar applications is the hardware complexity and computational load required to analyze radar signals.
Currently, some radar systems may be found in cars and trucks to provide an early warning of potentially hazardous conditions. However, such systems require complex circuitry and data processing to achieve these ends.
Another major issue plaguing vehicular radar systems, especially those using microwave radars, relates to beamwidth, that is, the angular width of the main lobe of the radar, and the associated angular resolution of the microwave radar. The beamwidth is inversely proportional to the antenna diameter in wavelength. With the limitation in the antenna size, it is very difficult to construct a reasonably sized microwave radar with a beamwidth of 1-4 degrees, both in azimuth and elevation. In addition, to provide azimuth and elevation data, the sensor either mechanically sweeps the antenna over the Field Of View (FOV), or electronically switches between emission/reception angles. The FOV is usually 10-15 degrees. At the desired scanning distance, this beamwidth will scan an area which is much too big and thus is too nonspecific and difficult to differentiate between the received echoes. Besides getting echo from another car in front of it, this radar will also receive echoes from other surrounding artefacts such as roadside signs, trees or posts, or bridges overpassing an expressway. On highways with divided lanes, the microwave radar will receive echoes from cars two to three lanes away and will have difficulty differentiating such echoes from echoes coming from objects in the same lane. Because of the poor angular resolution of microwave radars, the direction of objects cannot be specifically determined and objects too close to one another cannot be separated. The angular resolution of microwave radars is not small enough for them to be effectively used to monitor roadway traffic. The other disadvantage is that microwave radars have difficulty in distinguishing radar signals coming from adjacent cars with similar equipment. If there are more than two cars with the same radar equipment on the same scene, the signals become very confusing.
There is therefore a need for systems, methods, or devices which address the issues with the prior art. Such solutions, ideally, mitigate if not overcome these shortcomings of the prior art.